also of more than the two most spoken of in the T.S. and its literature. Then last, and now, he repeats it all with greater detail and particularity in his own series of Diary Leaves in his own magazine which has always been called the only organ the T.S. has. For, mark you, the PATH and Lucifer have never been made the organs of the T.S.; nor, indeed, should they be.

Mr. Sinnett stands out in high relief among those who have in public and private, within the T.S., asserted with all his strength his belief in the Masters' existence and tried his very best to prove his assertion. His books, his pamphlets, his speeches in public and private, all show this. Was he wrong, was he not fully justified under the constitution? And has he not gone even further and taken up the cudgels in battle for his views?

It very clearly appears, then, that under the Constitution we all have the fullest right to proclaim our views, not once but as often as we see fit, so long as we give others the same right and do not say that the T.S. as a body is responsible, for it is not. This is the beauty of our law. We are free just as the United States constitution is free and proclaims for no creed and no sort of god but leaves all men to say what they please, if they do not interfere with the liberty of others.

Entry into our ranks in no way infers a becoming flabby, by which it is supposed the querent means a fear of saying what and in what each individual believes, because this is a brotherhood free from dogmatism. Earnestness and sincerity are not dogmatism at all, and it is undeniable that a reform in philosophy and thought such as ours could never prosper if our members were to grow flabby in this or in any other particular. Then again, if some of us have found that for us the Masters exist, it is our human universal duty to tell others, so that they may find out also or be able to show by good substantial proof that we are wrong. When they shall have proved this to our satisfaction it will be time for us to disband, for then will have fallen the theory of the possible spiritual evolution of man, and we can then leave the field to the scientific materialists who not long ago declared the possibility of that high evolution. But as this is a reductio ad absurdum we may all continue our preachments of views, some for and some against man's great inheritance. The PATH will continue to say its editor believes in humanity and in the great Masters of Wisdom. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

Him I call indeed a Brahman who, though he be guilty of no offence, patiently endures reproaches, bonds, and stripes.-Dhammapada, v. 399.

SIR

THE CASE OF INDIA.*

IR-I have gone through your letter of the 5th April last with great interest and take the earliest opportunity to answer it. I am a high-caste orthodox Brahmin of Bharatdwija Gotra, tracing my spiritual ancestry to Brihaspati and Shang-Yu. I am also intimately acquainted with Col. Olcott, and I think therefore that I have a right to speak on the subject. It is certainly true that many Hindus do not support the Theosophical movement, and some believe it only masked Buddhism; it is also true that the evil is a growing one; but the causes are not those you mention, though individual indiscretions may have fanned the flame.

Ever since the advent of the Theosophical Society in India, skepticism, a sickly hybrid, began to give place to orthodoxy; with orthodoxy is coming bigotry and in some cases superstition, even among Hindu Theosophists who certainly should have known better. Soon after the first sign of the revival of our glorious religion, sprang up a class of interested persons who impose upon the public by pretending to be possessed of more knowledge and power than they really are. Dabblers in Occultism and Tantric ceremonies, impostors and pretenders of Shastric Knowledge with oracular condemnation of everything foreign, find the Theosophical Society a great stumbling-block to the carrying out of their nefarious trade of leading astray the ignorant and unwary, and both these "Masters" and their "Chelas" persistently maintain that there is nothing in the Theosophical Society, and that it is a mere Buddhistic movement.

But our Shastras are being translated in the Vernaculars, published and read with avidity, and ere long the eyes of the public will be opened, but not before, alas! many well meaning persons going over to the other Path, hopelessly wandering for the rest of their present incarnations. Such a sad spectacle is often met with among friends, Theosophists and others, a slave to the order of his "Guru", a wreck of spiritual aspirations and independence of thinking.

In the meantime, the prominent members of the Theosophical movement in India are calmly looking on, implicitly expecting *This article has reference to the "Open Letter to the Brahmins" of William Q. Judge ssued from New York.

that everything will be right in course of time. Dormant branches. are allowed quietly to die, everyone fondly hoping that they would come to life through their own exertions, forgetting the fact that a diseased Branch, like a diseased child, requires constant care and attendance.

Indians have a natural repugnance to foreigners: beef-eating, wine-bibbing Europeans with a rampant sense of superiority are not the class of persons a good Brahmin likes to associate with, much less to impart to them a real knowledge of his Shastras; and the open hate and contempt with which almost every one of the European residents in India treats the Indians are certainly not productive of that belief in earnestness of purpose without which it is idle to expect that the real teachings the Brahmins still possess would ever pass on to the foreigners. Regarding the Gita, for instance, now published in Europe and America, no one can understand it fully without, as I hear, the commentary by Hanumanta, the "Monkey God", who was present throughout the teaching.

Then again, you address to those Hindus only who are acquainted with your language, while your enemies have the advantage of speaking and writing in the vernaculars; and those that do not know the English language, or are acquainted with it very imperfectly, judge of the Society only from what they hear against it. The Indian Section has yet to learn fully and clearly that, to reach the mass or the great middle class, it must utilize native agencies and use the native dialects.

Now I think I have laid before you some at least of the principal causes that hamper the Theosophical movement in India. I hope you will not resent my plain speaking, for it is only thus that we can understand each other. I most sincerely thank you for your earnest appeal and for your favorable opinion of us. May our still living Rishees reward you!

Yours etc.,

A. SHAKTA GRIHASTHA OF BENGAL.

May my thoughts, now small and narrow, expand in the next existence that I may understand the precepts thoroughly and never break them or be guilty of trespass.-Inscription in Temple of Nakhon Wat.

Though outwardly no man ever saw you transgress, yet if your thoughts are evil your acts benefit others only and not yourself.— Palm Leaf.

I

THE SECRET DOCTRINE AND PHYSIOLOGY.

THE HEART AND PLEXUSES.

FIND on p. 92 of Vol. 2, Secret Doctrine, the heart of man described as consisting of four lower cavities and three higher divisions. I cannot reconcile this statement with human anatomy. If the two auricles and two ventricles are to be regarded as the four lower cavities, which are the three higher divisions? If the aorta and pulmonary artery are to be regarded as two of them, then the two vena cavae and the pulmonary veins must also be counted. Again on the same page it is asserted that there are seven nervous plexuses, which (each of them, suppose, is meant) radiate seven rays. There are sixty nervous plexuses enumerated in works on anatomy. Of all of these, one only (the epigastric) has seven subdivisions (included in the above sixty). On the same page it is asserted there are seven layers of skin; physiology counts only four. If there are seven, which are they and where to be found? These difficulties present a serious obstacle to the acceptance of the statements of The Secret Doctrine on matters less capable of verification. M. R. LEVERSON, M. D.

In my opinion the three cavities of the heart are (1) the pericardium, (2) the right auricle, (3) the left auricle. The four cavities below are (1) the right ventricle, (2) the pulmonary artery, (3) the left ventricle, (4) the aorta. The pulmonary artery and the aorta are prolongations of the heart; the one to the lungs and the other to all parts of the body. Their pulsations and structure are like and correspond with the pulsations and structure of the central organ. They are simply the going out of the heart to all parts of the organism, terminating in the wonderful capillary system through which life and nourishment are dispensed. The system of veins is composed simply of tubes for conveying back to the heart and lungs the used-up blood, which, after passing through the capillary system, has to be revivified before it is again fitted to give life and nourishment to the body. From this it is seen how completely the great heart fills the physical form. It is a much larger organ than is generally supposed. What is called heart, ordinarily speaking, is simply the central portion only.

J. H. S., M. D.

In this matter very much depends upon what is called heart and what not, as also upon the system of anatomical analysis. I think the four lower cavities are the two auricles and the two ventricles. The three other divisions are the two auricular appendages and the foramen ovale, which latter is a passage between anricle and ventricle, strongly marked in the foetal heart but nearly obliterated in the adult. K. H., F. T. S.

IN that part of the Secret Doctrine which is referred to by Dr. Leverson, it cannot be strictly said that the author "describes " the heart as consisting, etc., but she does speak as if taking it for granted that such is the division. I therefore understand her to refer to the true division or analysis of the heart, and not to the

one presently accepted among physicians. The medical fraternity have not always been right, and their conclusions have from time to time been revised. It was thought that the discovery of the circulation of the blood was unique in the West, but in fact it has been known in the East for many centuries. Even the nervous system has been known and is spoken of in ancient Hindu books. In one place it is said, "a thousand and one roads lead from the heart in every direction," and goes one to state that in those ramifications the inner person resides or functions during sleep. This may very well refer to the use of the nervous system, especially in sleep.

In respect to the divisions of the skin, Occultism says that there are actually seven divisions, and medical scientists can only state that they do not know of those seven, but have no right to say that there are not seven. If one reads the Secret Doctrine and takes its statements in respect to science as intending to refer to science as it now is, and then finds a difficulty because the author does not agree with science, there never of course could be any reliance placed upon it; but that book does not agree with science and does not pretend to, except in so far as science is absolutely correct. It is well to suspend judgment in regard to matters. where there is a disagreement between the Secret Doctrine and Science, inasmuch as medical and other schools have not yet. uttered the last words in their respective departments, and much has to be found out and many revisions of theories made before science will have come to its final determinations. But I have no doubt that these final conclusions will be in concordance with the Secret Doctrine.

The "seven nervous plexuses" spoken of are the seven main divisions, of greater importance in the human frame, known to Occultism, and the masters of that science do not deny that Western science has enumerated sixty on its own account, but these sixty are all included in the seven great plexuses. These latter

are well known to students of Occultism who have proceeded by the road which leads to a knowledge of them. And it is known to those students that these seven control all the rest in the human organism, whatever they may be. The only divergence, then, on this point, is that science places every nervous plexus that it knows by itself, and is not aware of the fact that they are classified in natural law into seven great divisions. This can be verified, but not by consulting books on anatomy nor by ordinary modern dissections.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.